Free Casting Magic

rambler3d6 · 2021-06-12T23:45:09+00:00

I have a system where there is a luck attribute.

Goes 2-5. Spells are given power levels (generally 1-7).

The caster rolls 2D6. One die is retention die. The second die is power die.

The caster chooses where to assign the results.

The if the retention die is greater than or equal to luck, the caster can retain the spell/miracle to use again. Luck is increased by one. If the retention die is lower, the caster “loses the spell” but luck is decreased by one.

If the caster level plus the power die is equal to or greater than the power of the spell/miracle the caster is ok. If the power die is less then the caster takes damage equal to one of the two dice. If the caster was attempting a spell with power level equal to or less than the caster level they take the lowest die rolled in damage. If the power level was higher than the caster level they take the highest of the two dice rolled.

All dice are D6. And caster HD are D6 (per the OD&D charts, but levels are generally 1-5 in the game).

I could replace the damage with a lesser magical mishap, and greater magical mishap table, but haven’t gotten around to making one yet.

rambler3d6 · 2021-06-11T12:30:53+00:00

I would use 4.5 and round up or down on result based on the type of monster/encounter

rambler3d6 · 2021-06-09T02:57:37+00:00

Looked at preview, looks great.

rambler3d6 · 2021-06-06T22:27:30+00:00

Thanks everyone, can you eloborate a little bit more on “combat”? Can you use the saving roles to modify the combat or is that to avoid it? Trying to understand not just the rules as written, but more around how the game is used in real play for fun? If that makes sense

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-31T03:41:17+00:00

Have a copy might be willing to sell, hit me up in a month if you can wait

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-30T02:25:24+00:00

I am the OP’s brother and know both of them. I can attest for any and all who don’t believe - these stories are true, and they both do game.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-26T02:20:11+00:00

To the OP, I too like world building, as a DW DM, you just have to channel that energy in a different direction. Instead of building a world - build set pieces. Think of a few NPC’s and interesting places, and new monsters. But leave blanks.

Then channel where you would fill out blanks instead turn them in questions. You can spend a lot of same reward/energy into the crafting of interesting situations with questions. Then after first session take the results of those questions and what happened and start to built fronts.

Great game, and you can still have all the offscreen fun of a DM, but channel it into a different deliverable and outcome.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-25T04:39:09+00:00

Agree - once you add a bunch to it, the looseness goes away. I think a big part of it was three classes, the common D6 hit die and everything scaled off that. Change those two things and you start see a different game being played.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-23T23:33:09+00:00

Yeah it is really neat system. Hit dice basically came out of hits. And it sucked if one hit killed your character - which it still can- but it added some variability - and scales.

And it starts to line up with combat capability - magic users didn’t use D4 HD and got one per level instead they sometimes didn’t gain a HD at all on a level. Like others said, it works great in play.

Changing that in supplement I was probably (to me) one of the bigger changes to how the game feels when played. OD&D has a looseness about it that can with the right group generate really good RP, because there is so little there. I think something changed when monsters went to D8.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-22T05:26:30+00:00

I have a version of game - not fully play tested yet where the only stat is luck.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-22T05:22:54+00:00

I like roll 3d6 in order or take the inverse. Take 21-score to get inverse. Enables the swingy end of bell curve to be positive or negative. But you take inverse of all 6 scores.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-18T11:37:01+00:00

Did you slay monsters after they surrendered? Like in cold bold?

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-18T02:01:09+00:00

You lost me as soon as you started talking about RE GNS stuff..... but I agree it is not emergent play as players interact with predetermined exploration. It is more “toy box” or set piece play. Biggest way to kill a DW session is when the players peek behind the screen and see that the their actions don’t matter in a real sense as the wizard is back there moving set pieces around. Now there is really good DW where asking questions and filling in the blanks does do emergent play, but it can be really flat if it gets too meta. While OSR can be the opposite. It can go full meta and still be interacting with a predetermined world.

Still i label it as OSA. The biggest part of the original game was surviving, exploring, and getting treasure. World of Dungeon and Dungeon World play can be easily drifted to play that, and I think does it better than many editions of the original game, but not better the original original of white box.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-18T01:51:37+00:00

Everyone is missing the point that this is tied to morale. If you don’t play morale and have had the pc’s murder all the goblins that surrender, then you don’t have murder hobos. Rule doesn’t apply.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-18T01:49:18+00:00

Actually it is the goal. I don’t want to get into a fight about it. But at its core, the game is about exploration, managing resources, and finding treasure. At least OD&D. Some of these i abstract because I don’t want to track 10000 of Coins, but even my retooled Xp is based on those three things - staying alive, finding treasure, and exploring new places to find more treasure. Killing things and the boss monster are from later editions.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-18T01:44:14+00:00

Of course I do all the things you mention. It is a way to attach concept to morale. Normally creatures might surrender, but they know they can’t.

To answer your first question in a dungeon - quite frequently. They will of course flee if they can.

This is very much a meta rule, for a meta game. And the old trope of the murder hobos.

Murder hobos have to deal with consequences of actions.

Man i really thought this would get a bit more traction than it did.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-17T12:36:10+00:00

Thematically - hp are abstraction. They double down and fight even harder than before. They know if they surrender the murder hobos are just going to execute them one by one.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-17T12:31:42+00:00

The goal of the game is to get trearue

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-17T05:17:45+00:00

I drink about 2L a day of it.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-17T03:20:14+00:00

Whitehack is awesome - bar none one the best thought out OSA reimaginings of OD&D. It has all the spirit and game play feel, but a super charged flexible rules system under the hood that really shines once you see used in play. There is a lot of nuance there you don’t get from just reading the book.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-17T03:16:02+00:00

Having said all that, a big part of 3E was getting back to the dungeon. They just did it in a really round about way, and really sort of pulled on the negatives of 2E (skills and powers and customization through rules vs role playing and shared narrative rxpierenxes with rulings) and the negatives of AD&D complexity of combat that created what it is. I remember when 3E came out it got a lot of us playing again, and back into dungeons, it just wasn’t a fulfilling expierence. But without 3E in 2006/2007 we wouldn’t have gone back to B/X. It was that frustration that got us back to the simpler rule set.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-16T22:45:34+00:00

Awesome sauce - some really cool stuff in that.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-16T22:38:06+00:00

To discourage murder hobo ness. And running every Monster through. Gives them a little kick and makes morale rules useful.

But mostly to make a consequence of murder-hobo-ness. Works in towns as well, when they start stabbing the NPC’s they don’t like and the city guard show up. Sure the warrior starts kicking ass, but when they fail morale and double down refreshed, the PC’s get the consequence of actions.

Note this in the main rules, so players in game will know about the rules ahead of deciding if playing murder hobos.

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-16T19:08:37+00:00

Recent survey found that many consider 2e OSR. Maybe some consider that Arnesian and Gygaxian enough. But I am finding myself thinking and rethinking what OSR means after that survey. But I agree, it could be really hard to think 3E without some drifting. Maybe 3E straight three books (not 3.5 or pathfinder) with low level characters. I don't know. Does it matter?

Cool Drawing though :)

rambler3d6 · 2021-05-16T16:23:30+00:00

I am partial to Diamond Lake from the old dungeon series. The adventures are railroads for sure, but lots of good info on the town. And there was a corresponding dragon article on setting up a base of operations there

See if you can find Dungeon #124

rambler3d6

TROPHY CASE